Shri Ashwini Kumar Choubey releases analytical report of the National Health Profile-2018

New Delhi: Shri Ashwini Kumar Choubey, Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare released an Analytical Report of the National Health Profile-2018 prepared by the Central Bureau of Health Intelligence (CBHI), under the aegis of the Directorate General of Health Services at Patna, today.

The National Health Profile covers demographic, socio-economic, health status and health finance indicators, along with comprehensive information on health infrastructure and human resources in health. CBHI has been publishing National Health Profile every year since 2005. This is the 12^th edition.

In his address, Shri Choubey said that the e-book of NHP-2015 is a step towards realizing Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi’s vision of Digital India where digital documents give us an opportunity for wider dissemination of information.

Shri Choubey further stated the inevitable need of evidence-based planning on the launch of the National Health Resource Repository (NHRR) - country’s first ever national healthcare facility registry of authentic, standardized and updated geospatial data of all public & private healthcare establishments.

Speaking on the occasion, Shri Sanjeeva Kumar Addl. Secretary (Health) stated that data is not only important for understanding the health indicators of the country, but it also provides an opportunity to monitor the situation. He said that the Analytical Report of National Health Profile – 2018 indicates that significant progress has been made in the country for various health outcomes, which is an encouraging sign.

The vision of the NHRR project is to strengthen evidence-based decision making and develop a platform for citizen and provider-centric services by creating a robust, standardized and secured IT-enabled repository of India’s healthcare resources. Shri Ashvini Kumar Choubey congratulated and appreciated the CBHI team for their initiatives regarding the use of geo-mapping

NHRR will be the ultimate platform for comprehensive information of both, Private and Public healthcare establishments including Railways, ESIC, Defense and Petroleum healthcare establishments.

Under the Collection of Statistics Act 2008, over 20 lakh healthcare establishments like hospitals, doctors, clinics, diagnostic labs, pharmacies and nursing homes would be enumerated under this census capturing data on over 1400 variables.

The Central Bureau of Health Intelligence (CBHI) has actively engaged with key stakeholders including leading Associations, Allied Ministries, and several private healthcare service providers. This resource repository shall enable advanced research towards ongoing & forthcoming healthcare challenges arising from other determinants of health like - disease, environment, etc.

Approximately 4,000 trained professionals are religiously working to approach every healthcare establishment for information collection. The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is the project technology partner adhering to paramount Data Security.

NHRR will cohesively work with Ayushman Bharat - National Health Protection Mission (AB-NHPM) and Central TB Division (CTD) on an integrated plan for the larger benefit of ensuing Hospital empanelment and private sector engagement.

This web-based database of healthcare resources with visualization will immensely support the healthcare policymakers to enable evidence-based decision making to strengthen the Indian health system.

The NHRR project involves conducting a national census for all public and private healthcare facilities including hospitals, doctors, clinics, blood banks, pharmacies, diagnostic labs etc. The aim of the project is to develop a comprehensive platform for over 25 lakh healthcare establishments. The platform will be very useful for all key stakeholders – government, private health establishments and the public.

Each healthcare establishment shall be visited by field operational teams from IQVIA Consulting & Information Services India Pvt Ltd (formerly IMS Health) – the implementation partner for nationwide data collection, management & implementation of the NHRR project. All healthcare establishments are requested to extend full co-operation and furnish accurate information to the field enumerators. The information collected in the national census will be kept confidential and shall be used for statistical purposes only.

The key expected outcomes of the NHRR project are to provide comprehensive data on all health resources including private doctors, health facilities, chemists, and diagnostics labs, establish a National Health Resource Repository for evidence-based decision making – aligned with Digital India mission. It shall also enhance the coordination between central and state government for optimization of health resources, making ‘live’ and realistic state PIPs and improving the accessibility of data at all levels, including State HODs, thus, decentralize the decision making at district and state level.

Some key benefits of the NHRR project are to create a reliable, unified registry of the country’s healthcare resources showing the distribution pattern of health facilities and services between cities and rural areas. Additionally, it shall generate real-world intelligence to identify gaps in health and service ratios and ensure judicious health resource allocation and management. It shall identify key areas of improvement by upgrading existing health facilities or establishing new health facilities keeping in view the population density, geographic nature, health condition, distance, etc.

The result shall be enhanced centre and state government coordination to ensure intelligent use of health resources to ensure superior health access, service delivery and improve transparency & accountability for effective centre-to-state funding. The project shall improve the visibility of Private providers to enable Public-Private Partnerships. It shall also provide access to information on health service providers to the citizen of India for improved health outcomes and enable mass outreach with all stakeholders such as hospitals, laboratories, private & public doctors, blood banks, pharmacies, etc.

The progress of the Data Collection of NHRR Census for the State of Bihar were also reviewed before the Hon’ble State Minister where it was stated that data collection in 13 District have completed and remaining 25 districts supposed to be completed by end of November 2018.

Also present at the release function were Principal Secretary Health, Government of Bihar, Shri Sanjay Kumar, Dr Madhu Raikwar, Shri Deepak Goyal, DDG (Stats.), Dr Kailash Kumar, Regional Director, H&FW and senior officers of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and CBHI.